A wireless, battery-free gyroscope was developed by employing a one-port surface acoustic wave (SAW) reflective delay line, a SAW resonator, and an antenna. Two SAW devices with different center frequencies were simultaneously activated by one antenna with double resonant frequencies. During wireless testing, the developed gyroscope showed clear reflection peaks with high S/N ratios in both the time and frequency domains. Upon rotation of the device, large shifts of the reflection peaks were observed owing to a secondary wave interference effect caused by the Coriolis force that depends on the spinning rate. The measured sensitivity and linearity of the developed gyroscope were, respectively, 1.35 deg/(deg/s) and 0.91, which are promising values for our targeted applications. The temperature and vibration/shock effects were also characterized

We report on the development of a net flux radiometer as part of a wireless sensor network for the acquisition of surface meteorological data on Mars. The radiometer makes use of four separate sensors to measure simultaneously: (i) global solar radiation; (ii) ground reflected solar radiation; (iii) sky emitted infrared radiation; and (iv) ground emitted infrared radiation. To perform measurements in the broad spectral range from 0.2 to 50 μm, goldblack coated microbolometers of 100 um size were fabricated for use in custom packaged pyranometers and pyrgeometers. Each microbolometer was placed at the center of an optically coated dome which provided a field-of-view of 180° and acted as a bandpass filter. Under nominal operating conditions the microbolometer showed a responsivity of ~ 75 kV/W and a time constant of ~ 13 ms. Parametric characterization of the radiometer provided a set of bias voltages, integration time, and temperature set points that help prevent the issue of output saturation in field operation conditions. The measured sensitivity, in the range from 2 to 6 mV/(W/m2), and measured resolution, from 0.06 to 0.15 W/m2, compared favorably with those of commercial net flux instruments. The results obtained in the field operation confirmed that the temporal responses of the pyranometer and pyrgeometer are in good agreement with the responses of the commercial instrument. However, a signal drift was observed, mostly in the pyrgeometer data, over a long period acquisition. This drift, which appears to be in correlation with changes in the environment temperature, is believed to be a result of the dome heating effect.

Shape memory alloys (SMA) offer unique shape changing characteristics that can be exploited to produce low­ mass, low-bulk, large-stroke actuators. We are investigating the use of low spring index (defined as the ratio of coil diameter to wire diameter) SMA coils for use as actuators in morphing aerospace systems. Specifically, we describe the development and characterization of minimum achievable spring index coiled actuators made from
0.3048 mm (0.012") diameter shape memory alloy (SMA) wire for integration in textile architectures for future compression space suit applications. Production and shape setting of the coiled actuators, as well as experimental test methods, are described. Force, length and voltage relationships for multiple coil actuators are reported and
discussed. The actuators exhibit a highly linear (R2 < 0.99) relationship between isometric blocking force and
coil displacement, which is consistent with current SMA coil models; and SMA coil actuators demonstrate the ability to produce significant linear forces (i.e., greater than 8 N per coil) at strains up to 3x their initial (i.e., fully coiled) length. Discussions of both the potential use of these actuators in future compression space suit designs, and the broader viability of these actuators in both macro- and micro-systems, are presented.

We report fabrication and characterization of MEMS-based tactile display that can display users various tactile information, such as Braille codes and surface textures. The display consists of 9 micro-actuators that are equipped with hydraulic displacement amplification mechanism (HDAM) to achieve large enough displacement to stimulate the human tactile receptors. HDAM encapsulates incompressible liquids. We developed a liquid encapsulation process, which we termed as Bonding-in-Liquid Technique, where bonding with a UV-curable resin in glycerin is conducted in the liquid, which prevented interfusion of air bubbles and deformation of the membrane during the bonding. HDAM successfully amplified the displacement generated by piezoelectric actuators by a factor of 6. The display could virtually produce “rough” and “smooth” surfaces, by controlling the vibration frequency, displacement, and the actuation periods of an actuator until the adjacent actuator was driven. We introduced a sample comparison method to characterize the surfaces, which involves human tactile sensation. First, we prepared samples whose mechanical properties are known. We displayed a surface texture to the user by controlling the parameters and then, the user selects a sample that has the most similar surface texture. By doing so, we can correlate the parameters with the mechanical properties of the sample as well as find the sets of the parameters that can provide similar tactile information to many users. The preliminary results with respect to roughness and hardness is presented.

New milestones in space exploration can be realized through the development of radiation-hardened, temperature-tolerant
materials, sensors and electronics. This enables lightweight systems (reduced packaging requirements) with
increased operation lifetimes. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a ceramic, semiconductor material that is stable within high-radiation,
high-temperature and chemically corrosive environments. Recently, this material platform has been utilized to
realize sensors and electronics for operation under extreme harsh conditions. These devices exploit the two-dimensional
electron gas (2DEG) formed at the interface between AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, which is used as the material
platform in high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). In this paper, a review of the advancements in GaN
manufacturing technology such as the growth of epitaxially deposited thin films, micromachining techniques and high-temperature
metallization is presented. In addition, the compelling results of fabricating and operating micro-scale GaNbased
sensors within radiation environments and at elevated temperatures are shown. The paper will close with future
directions GaN-based microsystems technology for down-hole, propulsion and space exploration applications.

The mechanical stability of silicon MEMS dies is strongly influenced by the microfabrication processes, especially grinding, dicing and etching, which leave characteristic damage (defects, cracks, dislocations…) in the substrate material. Specially designed mechanical tests are used to assess the resistance of micro-structures to monotonic and cyclic loading. We report on the development progress of a micromechanical test bench for reliability assessment of microstructures in 2-, 3- and 4-point bending configurations. Strain distributions and defects in micron-sized silicon devices can be investigated by in-situ testing in combination with high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements for experimentally assessing the strain distribution.

The increase in efficiency and precision in the production of semiconductor structures under the use of polymeric materials like SU-8 is crucial in securing the technological innovation within this industry. The manufacturing of structures on wafers demands a high quality of materials, tools and production processes. In particular, deviations in the materials' parameters (e.g. cross-linking state, density or mechanical properties) could lead to subsequent problems such as a reduced lifetime of structures and systems. In particular problems during the soft and post-exposure bake process can lead to an inhomogeneous distribution of material properties. This paper describes a novel approach for the characterization of SU-8 material properties in relation to a second epoxy-based material of different cross-linking by the measurement of optical dispersion within the material. A white-light interferometer was used. In particular the setup consisted of a white-light source, a Michelson-type interferometer and a spectrometer. The investigation of the dispersion characteristics was carried out by the detection of the equalization wavelength for different positions of the reference arm in a range from 400 to 900 nm. The measured time delay due to dispersion ranges from 850 to 1050 ps/m. For evaluation purposes a 200μm SU-8 sample was characterized in the described setup regarding its dispersion characteristics in relation to bulk epoxy material. The novel measurement approach allowed a fast and high-resolution material characterization for SU-8 micro structures which was suitable for integration in production lines. The outlook takes modifications of the experimental setup regarding on-wafer measurements into account.

This paper presents a novel approach for determining the Young’s modulus by using a self-mixing laser diode (SMLD).
An SMLD system consists of a laser diode (LD), a microlens and an external target. With a small portion of light
backscatterd or reflected by the target re-entering the LD inside cavity, both the amplitude and frequency of the LD
power are modulated. This modulated LD power is referred as a self-mixing signal (SMS) which is detected by the
photodiode (PD) packaged in the rear of the LD. The external target is the tested sample which is in damping vibration
excited by a singular elastic strike with an impulse tool. The vibration information from the tested sample is carried in
the SMS. Advanced data processing in frequency-domain is applied on the SMS, from which the resonant frequency of
the vibration can be retrieved, and hence Young’s modulus is calculated. The proposed method has been verified by
simulations.

A turn-key semi-automated test system was constructed to perform on-wafer testing of microbolometer arrays. The
system allows for testing of several performance characteristics of ROIC-fabricated microbolometer arrays including
NETD, SiTF, ROIC functionality, noise and matrix operability, both before and after microbolometer fabrication. The
system accepts wafers up to 8 inches in diameter and performs automated wafer die mapping using a microscope
camera. Once wafer mapping is completed, a custom-designed quick insertion 8-12 μm AR-coated Germanium viewport
is placed and the chamber is pumped down to below 10-5 Torr, allowing for the evaluation of package-level focal plane
array (FPA) performance. The probe card is electrically connected to an INO IRXCAM camera core, a versatile system
that can be adapted to many types of ROICs using custom-built interface printed circuit boards (PCBs). We currently
have the capability for testing 384x288, 35 μm pixel size and 160x120, 52 μm pixel size FPAs. For accurate NETD
measurements, the system is designed to provide an F/1 view of two rail-mounted blackbodies seen through the
Germanium window by the die under test. A master control computer automates the alignment of the probe card to the
dies, the positioning of the blackbodies, FPA image frame acquisition using IRXCAM, as well as data analysis and
storage. Radiometric measurement precision has been validated by packaging dies measured by the automated probing
system and re-measuring the SiTF and Noise using INO’s pre-existing benchtop system.

Thermoelectric oxide nanofibers prepared by electrospinning are expected to have reduced thermal conductivity when compared to bulk samples. Measurements of nanofibers’ thermal conductivity is challenging since it involves sophisticated sample preparation methods. In this work, we present a novel method suitable for measurements of thermal conductivity in a single nanofiber. A microelectro-mechanical (MEMS) device has been designed and fabricated to perform thermal conductivity measurements on a single nanofiber. A special Si template was designed to collect and transfer individual nanofibers onto a MEMS device. Pt was deposited by Focused Ion Beam to reduce the effective length of a prepared nanofiber. A single La0.95Sr0.05CoO3 nanofiber with a diameter of 140 nm was studied and characterized using this approach. Measured thermal conductivity of a nanofiber was determined to be 0.7 W/m•K, which is 23% of the value reported for bulk La0.95Sr0.05CoO3 samples.

In recent years, smart phone applications have both raised the pressure for cost and time to market reduction, and the
need for high performance MEMS devices. This trend has led the MEMS community to develop multi-die packaging of
different functionalities or multi-technology (i.e. wafer) approaches to fabricate and assemble devices respectively. This
paper reports on the fabrication, assembly and packaging at INO of various MEMS devices using heterogeneous
assembly at chip and package-level. First, the performance of a giant (e.g. about 3 mm in diameter), electrostatically
actuated beam steering mirror is presented. It can be rotated about two perpendicular axes to steer an optical beam within
an angular cone of up to 60° in vector scan mode with an angular resolution of 1 mrad and a response time of 300 ms. To
achieve such angular performance relative to mirror size, the microassembly was performed from sub-components
fabricated from 4 different wafers. To combine infrared detection with inertial sensing, an electroplated proof mass was
flip-chipped onto a 256×1 pixel uncooled bolometric FPA and released using laser ablation. In addition to the microassembly
technology, performance results of packaged devices are presented. Finally, to simulate a 3072×3 pixel
uncooled detector for cloud and fire imaging in mid and long-wave IR, the staggered assembly of six 512×3 pixel FPAs
with a less than 50 micron pixel co-registration is reported.

Reliable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches are critical for developing high performance radio frequency circuits like phase shifters. Engineers have attempted to improve reliability and lifecycle performance using novel contact metals, unique mechanical designs and packaging. Various test fixtures including: MEMS devices, atomic force microscopes (AFM) and nanoindentors have been used to collect resistance and contact force data. AFM and nanoindentor test fixtures allow direct contact force measurements but are severely limited by low resonance sensors, and therefore low data collection rates. This paper reports the contact resistance evolution results and fabrication of thin film, sputtered and evaporated gold, micro-contacts dynamically tested up to 3kHz. The upper contact support structure consists of a gold surface micromachined, fix-fix beam designed with sufficient restoring force to overcome adhesion. The hemisphere-upper and planar-lower contacts are mated with a calibrated, external load resulting in approximately 100μN of contact force and are cycled in excess of 106 times or until failure. Contact resistance is measured, in-situ, using a cross-bar configuration and the entire apparatus is isolated from external vibration and housed in an enclosure to minimize contamination due to ambient environment. Additionally, contact cycling and data collection are automated using a computer and LabVIEW. Results include contact resistance measurements of 6 and 8 μm radius contact bumps and lifetime testing up to 323.6 million cycles.

2D MEMS scanners are used for e.g. Laser projection purposes or Lidar applications. Electrostatically driven resonant torsional oscillations of both axes of the scanners lead to Lissajous trajectories for Laser beams reflected from the micro mirror. Wafer level vacuum encapsulation with tilt glass capping ensures high angular amplitudes at low driving voltages additionally preventing environmental impacts. Applying Laser Doppler Vibrometry, the effect of residual gas friction, squeezed film damping and internal friction on 2D MEMS scanners is analyzed by measuring the Q-values associated with the torsional oscillations. Vibrometry is also used to analyze the oscillatory motion of the micro mirror and the gimbal of the scanners. Excited modes of the scanner structures are identified giving rise to coupling effects influencing the scanning performance of the 2D MEMS mirrors.

This work reports on irradiations made on silicon bulk-acoustic wave resonators. The resonators were based on a tuning
fork geometry and actuated by a piezoelectric aluminum nitride layer. They had a resonance frequency of 150 kHz and a
quality factor of about 20000 under vacuum. The susceptibility of the devices to radiation induced degradation was
investigated using 60Co γ-rays and 50 MeV protons with space-relevant doses of up to 170 krad. The performance of the
devices after irradiation indicated a high tolerance to both ionizing damage and displacement damage effects. The results
support the efforts towards design and fabrication of highly reliable MEMS devices for space applications.

A proof of concept of the Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) technique was explored to assess and optimize electronic packaging designs for long duration deep space missions in a wide temperature range (–150°C to +125°C). HALT is a custom hybrid package suite of testing techniques using environments such as extreme temperatures and dynamic shock step processing from 0g up to 50g of acceleration. HALT testing used in this study implemented repetitive shock on the test vehicle components at various temperatures to precipitate workmanship and/or manufacturing defects to show the weak links of the designs. The purpose is to reduce the product development cycle time for improvements to the packaging design qualification. A test article was built using advanced electronic package designs and surface mount technology processes, which are considered useful for a variety of JPL and NASA projects, i.e. (surface mount packages such as ball grid arrays (BGA), plastic ball grid arrays (PBGA), very thin chip array ball grid array (CVBGA), quad flat-pack (QFP), micro-lead-frame (MLF) packages, several passive components, etc.). These packages were daisy-chained and independently monitored during the HALT test. The HALT technique was then implemented to predict reliability and assess survivability of these advanced packaging techniques for long duration deep space missions in much shorter test durations. Test articles were built using advanced electronic package designs that are considered useful in various NASA projects. All the advanced electronic packages were daisychained independently to monitor the continuity of the individual electronic packages. Continuity of the daisy chain packages was monitored during the HALT testing using a data logging system. We were able to test the boards up to 40g to 50g shock levels at temperatures ranging from +125°C to -150°C. The HALT system can deliver 50g shock levels at room temperature. Several tests were performed by subjecting the test boards to various g levels ranging from 5g to 50g, test durations of 10 minutes to 60 minutes, hot temperatures of up to +125°C and cold temperatures down to -150°C. During the HALT test, electrical continuity measurements of the PBGA package showed an open-circuit, whereas the BGA, MLF, and QFPs showed signs of small variations of electrical continuity measurements. The electrical continuity anomaly of the PBGA occurred in the test board within 12 hours of commencing the accelerated test. Similar test boards were assembled, thermal cycled independently from -150°C to +125°C and monitored for electrical continuity through each package design. The PBGA package on the test board showed an anomalous electrical continuity behavior after 959 thermal cycles. Each thermal cycle took around 2.33 hours, so that a total test time to failure of the PBGA was 2,237 hours (or ~3.1 months) due to thermal cycling alone. The accelerated technique (thermal cycling + shock) required only 12 hours to cause a failure in the PBGA electronic package. Compared to the thermal cycle only test, this was an acceleration of ~186 times (more than 2 orders of magnitude). This acceleration process can save significant time and resources for predicting the life of a package component in a given environment, assuming the failure mechanisms are similar in both the tests. Further studies are in progress to make systematic evaluations of the HALT technique on various other advanced electronic packaging components on the test board. With this information one will be able to estimate the number of mission thermal cycles to failure with a much shorter test program. Further studies are in progress to make systematic study of various components, constant temperature range for both the tests. Therefore, one can estimate the number of hours to fail in a given thermal and shock levels for a given test board physical properties.

A first principles study has been performed to systematically evaluate the mechanical properties and stabilities of pristine, hydrogenated and fluorinated silicene (H-silicane and F-silicane) under tension. The uniaxial tension along the armchair (AC) and zigzag (ZZ) directions and the equiaxial tensile strain are considered in this work. The calculated results have shown that the deformation, failure behavior and the ideal strength are anisotropic along the three deformed directions. After hydrogenation and fluorination, the ideal strengths in three deformed directions all reduce while the ideal strains increase. Therefore, the hydrogenation and fluorination increase the toughness. The phonon calculations based on the density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) confirm stabilities of the pristine silicene, H- and F-silicane. The Poisson ratios of three materials along the AC and ZZ directions all exhibit monotone decreasing changes with increasing strain, except that the Poisson ratio of pristine silicene in the zigzag direction increases with increasing strain. The tensile strains decrease the buckling height, as expected, but in a complex function. The second- and third-order elastic constants are determined by least-squares polynomial fitting to the first principles calculations. Our results can help to understand the effect of hydrogenation and fluorination of silicene on its mechanical properties and provide some useful data for the experiments.

The Alpha factor, also known as the linewidth enhancement factor, is one of the fundamental parameters for semiconductor lasers (SLs) as it characterizes many properties of the SLs, such as the responses to the electrical injection and the optical injection. Due to the great importance of alpha factor in research analysis and application design, the high accuracy of the experimental alpha measurement is required. The optical feedback self-mixing interferometry (OFSMI) based method for the alpha measurement is one of the popular approaches in the past twenty years due to its easy implementation and inexpensive, self-aligned experiment set-up. This paper proposes an effective data processing method applied in the frequency-domain based self-mixing approach for alpha factor measurement. The alpha value is estimated from the complex frequency spectrum of the feedback phase signal in an OFSMI system. However, some of the estimated results with large deviations are found in the experimental estimation due to the noises in practice. The work presented in the paper is twofold. Firstly, the errors of alpha estimation are analyzed. Secondly, the algorithm using distance-based outlier removal is proposed for optimizing the estimation results of alpha. The results show that the estimation accuracy of alpha can be achieved to 6.725% and 1.923% for the optical feedback level in the OFSMI system.

In this study, we present the optical properties of a plasmonic nanoantenna array based on H-shaped gold nanoparticles with extended arms, which can be used for infrared detection applications. Plasmonic nanoantennas operating at the infrared and visible region provide a unique way to capture, control and manipulate light at the nanoscale through the excitation of collective electron oscillations known as surface plasmons. The unit cell of proposed antenna consists of one H-shaped nanostructure and two extended arms located on the lateral sides of this nanostructure. We will demonstrate the proposed antenna has a dual band spectral response and the locations of the resonance frequencies can be adjusted by changing the geometrical dimensions of both the H-shaped nanoparticles and the extended arms. Theoretical calculations of the reflectance spectra of the nanoantenna array are performed by using simulation software, which utilizes Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. In order to show the sensing capacity of the structure, the effect of the dielectric medium on the resonance frequency is also determined. The results show that the proposed antenna can be utilized for infrared sensing applications.

Nano- and hetero-structures of modified carbon nanotube (CNT) and Graphene nano Platelet (GnP) can control significantly piezoresistive and optoelectronic properties in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) as acoustic actuators. Interfacial durability and electrical properties of modified CNT and GnP embedded in poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanocomposites were investigated for use in acoustic actuator applications. Modified GnP coated PVDF nanocomposite exhibited better electrical conductivity than neat and modified CNT due to the unique electrical nature of GnP. Modified GnP coating also exhibited good acoustical properties. Contact angle, surface energy, work of adhesion, and spreading coefficient measurements were contributed to explore the interfacial adhesion durability between neat CNT or plasma treated CNT and plasma treated PVDF. Acoustic actuation performance of modified GnP coated PVDF nanocomposites were investigated for different radii of curvature and different coating conditions, using a sound level meter. Modified GnP can be a more appropriate acoustic actuator than CNT cases because of improved electrical properties. Optimum radius of curvature and coating thickness was also obtained for the most appropriate sound pressure level (SPL) performance. This study can provide manufacturing parameters of transparent sound actuators with good quality practically.

MEMS resonators have potential application in the area of frequency selective devices (e.g., gyroscopes, mass sensors, etc.). In this paper, design of electro thermally tunable resonators is presented. SOIMUMPs process is used to fabricate resonators with springs (beams) and a central mass. When voltage is applied, due to joule heating, temperature of the conducting beams goes up. This results in increase of electrical resistance due to mobility degradation. Due to increase in the temperature, springs start softening and therefore the fundamental frequency decreases. So for a given structure, one can modify the original fundamental frequency by changing the applied voltage. Coupled thermal effects result in non-uniform heating. It is observed from measurements and simulations that some parts of the beam become very hot and therefore soften more. Consequently, at higher voltages, the structure (equivalent to a single resonator) behaves like coupled resonators and exhibits peak splitting. In this mode, the given resonator can be used as a band rejection filter. This process is reversible and repeatable. For the designed structure, it is experimentally shown that by varying the voltage from 1 to 16V, the resonant frequency could be changed by 28%.

A thermoreflectance microscopy (TRM) system has emerged as a non-destructive and non-contact tool for a high resolution thermal imaging technique for micro-scale electronic and optoelectronic devices. Quantitative imaging of the temperature distribution is necessary for elaborate thermal characterization under operating conditions, such as thermal profiling and performance and reliability analysis. We introduce here a straightforward TRM system to perform quantitative thermal characterization of microelectronics devices. The quantitative imaging of the surface temperature distribution of a polysilicon micro-resistor is obtained by a lock-in measurement technique and calibration process in the conventional CCD-based widefield microscope. To confirm the quantitative thermal measurement, the measured thermal information is compared to that obtained with an infrared thermography (IRT) system. In addition to quantitative surface temperature distribution, the sub-micron defects on microelectronic devices can be clearly distinguished from the thermoreflectance images, which are hardly perceptible with a conventional widefield microscopy system. The thermal resolution of the proposed TRM system is experimentally determined by measuring standard deviation values of thermoreflectance data with respect to the iteration number. The spatial and thermal resolutions of our system are measured ~670 nm and ~13 mK, respectively. We believe that quantitative thermal imaging in the TRM system can be used for improvement of microelectronic devices and integrated circuit (IC) designs.

KEYWORDS/PHRASES

Keywords

in

Remove

in

Remove

in

Remove

+ Add another field

SEARCH IN:

Proceedings

Volume

Journals +

Volume

Issue

Page

Journal of Applied Remote SensingJournal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and SystemsJournal of Biomedical OpticsJournal of Electronic ImagingJournal of Medical ImagingJournal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMSJournal of NanophotonicsJournal of Photonics for EnergyNeurophotonicsOptical EngineeringSPIE Reviews